


The Worst of Days

by pennysparrow



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 19:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12065394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennysparrow/pseuds/pennysparrow
Summary: Steph's day started out bad and then it went down hill. She could only hope that it was going to get better at some point.





	The Worst of Days

**Author's Note:**

> For the Batfam Content War on tumblr. You can find me there @ thelittredheadedmusician

Steph was having a crappy day. No, the word crappy hardly even _began_ to describe how truly awful her day was going. Which was really, really unfair because by the bat-clan’s standards the day was just beginning. And it _sucked_.

She’d spent most of the night before finishing a ten-page paper while Damian crashed on her couch and Cass watched truly terrible reality shows in her living room. Then she had to hand in the paper but naturally the train was delayed because it was Gotham and the freaking Condiment King decided to get his ass handed to him again. Thank god Cass and Damian had slept over and handled it or else she would be even later to her eight am.

From there she had to track down her advisor to sign a form okaying Steph’s thesis being sent to a conference. By the time she finally managed to corner the professor she had to run to lab, only to get kicked out because she’d stupidly worn sandals due to the earlier morning rush.

Thankfully Francisco was letting her copy his notes at lunch but that just meant she had to sit with Jordanna. Ugh. Steph swore that whatever supreme beings dictated her life just really had it out for her. After an hour enduring snide remarks and sneers Steph gathered her books and headed for the library, because being a college student and superhero left her bank account drained so she had to make money somehow.

Steph waved to her boss as she tossed her things into the cubby below the desk. Grabbing a cart that the last student worker had just loaded with books she made her way into the stacks. She made it all of five feet before groaning. The stinking freshman had given her the cart that always pulled to the left like some defunct grocery store buggy.

Jogging across campus to her last class of the day Steph felt her phone buzz. She fished it out of her coat pocket, furrowing her brow at the screen. “What,” she demanded in greeting.

“Um, hi Steph. Nice to hear from you too?” Tim said sarcastically from the other end of the line.

Steph paused, running a hand through her hair as she examined the science complex in front of her. “Sorry, it’s just not my day and I’m really not in the mood for whatever bull you might be calling about and I’ve got a class and…” Steph trailed off, tipping her head back and closing her eyes.

“I’m really sorry Steph and I didn’t mean to make it worse.” Steph could hear the wince in Tim’s voice, the reluctance to state what he was calling about.

“It’s whatever Timmers. So what’s up?” She hiked her backpack higher on her shoulder and made her way into the building. She was early for the lecture but really didn’t know how long it would take for her to get Tim to just spit whatever it was out. Her best bet was to sit in the hall so she could hang up and slip in when she saw the professor coming.

“Well Jason somehow got a cat,” Tim started but Steph interrupted with a strangled “what?!” before he could say anything else. “Yeah… I think it’s from Damian? Anyway, not the point, he asked Cass to watch it while he was on a mission but she left this morning with Dick for some acrobatic camp or something and asked me to just feed it but I can’t because I’m on my way to the Tower for a Titans mission. Can you just feed the darn thing tonight when you’re on patrol?”

Steph shook her head as she tried to wrap her mind around all that Tim was saying. “Ok. I didn’t actually follow all that but I’m pretty sure the point is I need to feed Jason’s cat tonight?”

“Um, yeah, pretty much,” Tim sounded sheepish and just a little guilty.

“Ok, sure. I’m partnered up with the Baby Bat near there anyway, I’ll just make him help,” she sighed, waving to a passing friend.

She heard Tim release a breath that she hadn’t realized he was holding. “Thanks Steph. I promise to make it up to you.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever,” Steph rolled her eyes at the boy on the phone. “Ok, I really have to go to class. Bye Tim.”

“Bye Steph! I owe you!”

She hung up and sighed, going to collapse into the crappy desk next to the girl she had taken bio with just as the professor walked in. Walked in and announced a pop quiz. Steph raised her eyes to the ceiling and prayed that the universe take pity on her by having Apokolips invade so she could leave. No such luck.

Steph had just made it to the train station when she felt her phone buzz again. This time it was a text from Bruce calling her to the Manor. She grumbled at the screen and shoved the phone back into her pocket. Turning to head back out of the station Steph went to hail a cab, Alfred would be more than willing to pay the fare out to Bristol for her.

She was indeed greeted by Alfred at the door who paid for her cab before ushering her inside. Just as she had gotten out of the taxi it had started to pour. Darn Gotham weather. The ten feet from the car to the Manor’s front door had Steph drenched. She stood dripping in the marble tile of the foyer while Alfred pulled fluffy emergency towels for them from the coat closet, likely intended for days like this.

Steph wrapped it around herself and began to wring out her blonde hair. It was at this point that Damian choose to stomp down the staircase. “You look like a drowned rat, Brown,” he sneered.

“And you look like an angry little kitten. ‘Specially with your hair sticking up like that. Take a cat nap?” Steph shot back with a grin. Giving Alfred the now damp towel she thanked him and headed toward the study, Damian trailing behind her. She spun the clock hands, causing the hidden door in the grandfather clock to swing open. Steph paused before descending into the cave. “Do you know what your dad wants?”

Damian looked back at her, his nose scrunching briefly before he gave a forcefully nonchalant shrug. “I do not know what Father would want with someone so incompetent as yourself,” he sniffed.

Steph just rolled her eyes. “Gee Dames, thanks,” she said and began the descent. Even now as Batgirl, someone not only accepted but welcomed here, she got a rush walking down the dark stairwell. Her heart pounded as she caught sight of the dinosaur and the giant penny, her eyes catching just for a second on the memorial cases before skipping immediately to the huge computer screen and the man who stood there.

“Stephanie,” Bruce called out, turning as she and Damian walked towards him. “I have already informed Oracle but I wished to speak with you in person. There is an emergency that requires Justice League attention and as such I will be leaving to attend to it momentarily. You and Damian shall be patrolling together tonight. Batwoman, Batwing, and some of the Birds of Prey will be patrolling as well. I have mapped out routes for you, Oracle is ultimately in charge although Damian you are to defer to Stephanie.”

With that Bruce turned on his heel and was teleported to the Watchtower. Damian turned to her with a glare, the effect was quite cute rather than menacing. “I will not be deferring to your judgment tonight nor any other, _Fatgirl_ ,” Damian spat at her. Like his father had just done he turned on his heel and marched deeper into the cave. Likely to cut the heads off practice dummies with his katanna.

Steph slouched and tilted her head up to the ceiling. She gave a strangled cry that culminated in a whiny “Why?!” The bats didn’t answer and merely fluttered away. She sighed and headed back towards the stairs, she’d much rather spend the hours before patrol studying and lounging around in the manor rather than dealing with the pissed off child assassin. He’d come around eventually.

Now though Steph was positive that her day was cursed. Wholly, truly, irreversibly cursed. And everything up until that point had simply been the opening act. She and Damian had gone on patrol, much to Damian’s continued displeasure. They had only been out about an hour when it happened.

“Batgirl, I need you and Robin to swing by the Narrows. I’ve got a report of an armed robbery in progress and you’re the closest.”

“You got it O!” Steph chirped back as she and Damian adjusted their course to the address that Oracle had uploaded to their masks displays. Perching on the roof of the apartment building across the street they could see into the small deli. Sure enough a guy in a ski mask was holding a pistol in the face of a very frightened clerk and waving a pillow case in his other hand.

“-tt- How cliché,” Damian mumbled.

“I know right?” Steph couldn’t keep the slight chuckle from her voice. “Ok, so here’s the plan-” Before she could say another word Damian was already gone from her side, swinging towards the store front and using the momentum to kick in the windows. Glass shattered and the gunman whirled. Steph heard two shots before she was moving. Line fired, hair and cape flying behind her as she practically free fell towards the street.

She swung in through the same window Damian had, glass crunching under her feet as she landed. Both the would-be robber and Damian were nowhere in sight though. Steph pulled some batarangs from her belt and inched forward. She peered behind the counter as she passed, the shaking clerk peering back. She lifted a finger to her lips and motioned that he stayed put before Steph turned her attention back to the threat at hand. From somewhere behind the rows of snacks she heard another gunshot ring out. And another. Then a thud.

Steph jumped onto the counter, turning to launch herself over the displays. She tackled the gunman from behind, knocking the weapon from his grip. She pulled his hands together behind his back and set off one of the goop-a-rangs in her hand, it was faster than grabbing her cuffs. Steph then turned her attention on the small red, green, yellow, and black figure that laid in front of the milk display. She could already see more red pooling beneath him and his green gloves were stained with it from where he pressed against his side.

“Robin!” Steph gasped and rushed to him. He grumbled a bit and some of her worry lessened but Steph still went about checking his pulse before radioing Oracle. “Robin was shot in the side. I- I don’t know how bad it is but there’s a lot of blood. He’s breathing and has been applying pressure so that’s a good sign…” Steph trialed off in her ramblings as she felt the panic in her rise.

“It’s going to be ok Batgirl. I’m sending Penny-One in the Batmobile to pick you up and escort you immediately to the clinic. In the meantime, I need to you to check the wound for the bullet, just like we’ve trained.”

Steph nodded and gulped, it didn’t matter if she gave Barbara a verbal reply or not, the older woman was more than likely already hacked into the security cameras. She’d done the same thing a thousand times it felt like, on herself and other members of the so-called family. But never Damian. Never Damian. He was so young and small and there was so much blood and he was always to strong and fierce and now he was biting his lip to keep from whimpering and Steph was worried.

She moved his hands from his side. “This might hurt,” she whispered, pulling the small flashlight from her belt. She clicked it on and used it to examine the wound as she gently felt for a bullet. Sure enough it was still there, not deep but it’d made a mess of the Robin suit and Damian. She relayed her findings to Oracle before applying pressure again.

Steph turned to glare at the robber who was still face down on the tile, his hands encased in her trademark goo. “I hope you’re happy. This is why crime doesn’t pay dipshit,” she snarled. He winced and Steph returned her attention to Damian. “It’s gonna be ok Robin. You’ll be fine,” she whispered.

Damian seemed to roll his eyes. “I know,” was all the retort he managed though and that concerned Steph even more than the bullet wound or the blood loss.

“Ride’s here,” Oracle told them.

Steph moved to scoop Damian up and carry him to the waiting Batmobile. “This might hurt,” she warned him before lifting him bridal style. Damian winced and Steph was surprised at how light the kiddo was. “And you,” she addressed the robber one last time. “Don’t move till the police come or I will personally come back to kick your ass.”

Steph took slight satisfaction in the way he winced before rushing from the deli. Damian was like her little brother, annoying but lovable. She couldn’t stand the fact that he had gotten so badly injured on her watch. The Batmobile was idling by the curb with its passenger door open. She slid Damian onto the back seat before settling herself in the front and closing the door. She positioned herself so she could keep pressure on the wound as Alfred took off.

They got to the clinic in no time, Leslie immediately taking Damian to remove the bullet and stitch him up. Maybe even give him some blood since Steph guessed that about half of his own was spread between the deli and the Batmobile’s backseat.

“Please do not beat yourself up over this, Miss Stephanie,” Alfred sat in the plastic chair next to hers.

She took the towel he offered and began wiping off her gloves. “But I was supposed to watch him and _this_ happened. What am I going to say to Bruce? What’s Bruce going to say to _me_?”

“I’m sure Master Bruce will understand and, loathe as I am to say it, Master Damian has been in much worse shape before.”

Steph sighed, leaning her head against the wall. “Y’know what Alfred, today has been utter shit.”

The butler chuckled at that. “Well Miss Stephanie I feel confident in saying that it can only go upward from this point.”

She looked at him out of the corner of her and raised a brow. “Don’t jinx it Alf.”

The two sat like that in the clinic’s small waiting room for what felt like ages before Leslie finally came out. “He’s going to be ok, but no patrol for two weeks or he’ll pull his stiches.” Both nodded and Steph jumped to follow her back into the small room she reserved for vigilante visits. Damian was sitting on the table kicking his feet, a white bandage poking out of the hole in his now ruined Robin tunic.

He raised his head and met Steph’s eyes. “I apologize for my actions and any worry I may have put you through as a result of them. That was immature and impulsive. I will be sure to inform Father that my injury was entirely my own fault.” He ended with a stiff nod.

Steph gave the kid a soft smile. “That’s ok Dami, I just want you to be ok. Ok?” He nodded and Steph went to hug him before being stopped with a sharp glare from Dr. Thompkins. “So I’m apparently supposed to feed Jason’s cat? Wanna come with and then we can go back to the Manor and continue your Disney education?”

Damian considered this before giving her a small smile. “I think I would enjoy that very much, thank you.”

Steph grinned. “Hey Alfred, think we can borrow the Batmobile for a quick trip? We’ll pick you up on the way back to the cave.”

“As long as you drive Miss Brown, that shouldn’t be a problem. I doubt Master Jason’s cat requires my attention as well,” he said with a smile.

Damian slid to the ground and grumbled something about driving the Batmobile and Steph couldn’t resist the urge to ruffle his hair. He swatted half-heartedly at her hands. Steph just smiled, terrible days really did only ever last for so long.


End file.
